Svindal equaled the records of Toni Sailer, Jean-Claude Killy and Bernhard Russi with a second victory in an event that no skier has won three times.

"It's a huge achievement for me to clinch another gold medal today in such a difficult race. I was so tired in my mind and body crossing the finish line after fighting so hard all the way down," Svindal said.

"The course was very hard and even icy in some parts and the visibility was very poor too.

"I'm really proud to have been able to produce such an effort at the given moment. I was convinced I had given my best and achieved a pretty strong run."

It was the fifth world title for Svindal, who won the downhill in Are six years ago and he has now won gold medals in the last four world championships, claiming the combined titles in 2009 and in 2011. Aksel also becomes the first Alpine skiing champion to win gold in five consecutive major events.

There was plenty to celebrate in San Diego for Red Bull KTM Factory riders Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen as they both rocked onto the SX podium.

In the sixth round of the AMA Supercross championship, Dungey finished third in 450 class while Roczen took second in the 250 class and maintained his overall lead.

“I’m actually pretty happy with my ride tonight,” Dungey said. “It was a tough track to pass on and as I didn’t get a great start, I think I rode pretty strong to come through the pack and finish on the box. It would definitely make my life a little easier if I could keep getting a start like I did last week! But that’s just something I have to work on.”

Roczen added: "I was kind of uncomfortable on this track all day but I think I put together a good race come the main event. I guess my focus at this point in time is just to stay healthy and to keep things going the way they have been going at the races while our series is on a break and come out blazing again in Seattle."

Switzerland’s Derek Wedge won a thrilling Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship race in the Netherlands on Saturday with a brilliant come-from-behind victory in a spill-filled final with Austria’s Marco Dallago taking second and local hero Bart van Roosmalen finishing third.

“This was a really crazy race,” said Wedge. “I thought I was going to be second and then couldn’t believe it when I ended up first.” Dallago couldn’t believe he had fallen so late either: “I was giving everything I had and maybe it was just a bit too much. I tried to jump over some waves in the ice and just toe-picked it and went down.”

Staying with the wintry theme and it's off to Karlstad, Sweden now where Sebastien Ogier won the second WRC event of the season – the Rally Sweden.

Ogier, who had led since early on Friday morning, held his nerve on Sunday’s final six stages to eventually finish 41.8 seconds clear of fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb who, after a brush with a snowbank on the penultimate Finnskogen stage, chose to back off.

Ogier, who became only the second driver from outside Scandinavia to win the Rally Sweden since 1950, acknowledged his VW team afterwards.

"I must thank them because I’ve never had such a perfect car,” he said. “Of course the win here is amazing but also a big surprise. We have spent so much time in preparation, all of last year, but we never expected to have the performance that we did this weekend. It couldn’t be better.

"This morning, Sebastien [Loeb] was putting a lot of pressure on us. He was flying in the stages. But we kept it together and kept our position. To win like that is amazing.”